Feed drum adjusting mechanism



July 16, 1957 A. J. RICHARDS FEED DRUM ADJUSTING MECHANISM 3Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 3, 1954 INVENTOR. A. IPICIYARDJ y 1957 A. J.RICHARDS 2,799,498 v FEED DRUM ADJUSTING MECHANISM Filed May 3, 1954 sSheets-Sheet 2- INVENTOR.

/] I lac/MR0;

M w 3 4 .llwn 3 M fi 4 7 v 2 WI M m .x la

July 16, 1957 A. J. RICHARDS FEED DRUM ADJUSTING MECHANISM s Shets-Sheet3 Filed May 3, 1954 IIVVENTOR. A \IR/CHARDS United FEED DRUM ADWSTENGMECHANISM Augustus J. Richards, Lakewood, Ulric, assignor toBonnar-Vawter, Incorporated, Cleveland, Qhio, a ccrporation AppiicationMay 3, 1954, Serial No. 426,977

7 Claims. (Ql. 271-45) This invention relates to feed drum adjustingmechanism and particularly to such mechanism which ordinarily comprisesimportant elements in collating machines.

In such machines, where webs of paper are brought together and must bekept in alignment and register, perforations are generally present ineach web at the edge thereof, so that pins on feed drums of the machinemay enter and not only assist in tensioning the web for withdrawal fromthe storage rolls but also to keep the printed matter on the web facesin register.

Inasmuch as the length of the web is affected by many conditions, suchas moisture content of the paper, whereby one web may actually beslightly longer in places than the other, accurate feed holeregistration as between webs is disturbed. This may not only cause abuckling of the web but under certain conditions a tearing of the webmight result in compelling shutdown of the machine.

Heretofore it has not been possible to compensate for such changes asabove indicated without shutdown and thus valuable productive time islost.

Even if the machine is shut down, the adjustment of the feed drums mustbe effected by wrenches in a laborious manner, and further trial anderror is the basis on which such adjustment is made, further causingconstant starting and stopping of the machine to determine if theadjustment has been properly made.

It will be apparent that this present manner of resorting to adjustmentof such feed drums consumes time and delays the resumption of productionwhich on machines of the type to which this invention is directed iscarried out at relatively high speed, and thus delays are desirable tobe obviated.

Thus if the foregoing problems can be obviated and a substantialincrease in production may be efiected a substantial advance will havebeen made in the art, and this is one of the primary purposes andaccomplishments of this invention.

A further principal object of the invention is to provide feed drumadjusting mechanism which is simple in mechanical construction, and maybe incorporated in such machines with a minimum amount of rearrangementof the various components thereof.

It is a further object of this invention to enable feed drums to beadjusted in collating machines, while the machine is operatingpreventing the loss of time usually accompanying such adjustingmanipulation.

Yet a further object of the invention is to provide a feed drumadjusting mechanism which is readily accessible and with very littleprevious skill may be operated so as to cause the adjustment to takeplace while the machine is in operating action, the various partsthereof being simply arranged for such manipulation.

A further object of the invention is to provide a feed drum adjustingmechanism which will compensate both for misalignment of the feed pinswith respect to the web moving thereover, in longitudinal fashion, andin addition change the relative rotative relation of the shaft and drum,both of the foregoing being accomplished while the machine is inoperation.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a feed drumadjusting mechanism which may be readily fitted at the end of a feeddrum and thus accessible for the operator of the machine, which includeseasily manipulable hand wheels, one of the same regulating rotativerelation of the shaft and drum carried thereby, and the other moving thedrum on the shaft at right angles to such rotative change.

Other and further objects of the invention will be understood from aconsideration of the specification appended hereto and shown in thedrawings wherein Figure 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of the generalarrangement of feed drums in a collating machine of the type with whichthis invention may be associated.

Figure 2 is a fragmentary enlarged view, partly in section, showing thegeneral arrangement of the adjusting mechanism for one of the feed drumsin a collating machine.

Figure 3 is an end view of a feed drum including certain of theadjusting elements, one of the hand wheels usually associated therewithbeing omitted, and show' ing the various parts in different positions.

Figure 4 is a sectional view taken about on the line 44 of Figure 3looking in the direction of the arrows, illustrating more particularlythe manner of effecting movement of certain of the parts.

Figure 5 is a sectional view taken about centrally and longitudinally ofa feed roll such as is intended to be used with this invention,illustrating more completely certain of the parts for effecting movementof the feed roll inwardly and outwardly on the shaft of the machine.

Referring now to the drawings, Figure 1 illustrates diagrammaticallycertain portions of a collating machine, a substantial number of theusual parts being omitted, showing the feed rolls 1, as having extendingfrom their peripheries the usual feed pins 2. As will be understood thefeed rolls desirably have their axes in parallelism and are fixedrelative to one another. Thus their peripheries are tangentially in thesame plane also so that the webs 3 being withdrawn from the storagerolls 4 may be brought into juxtaposition after having passed over theusual tensioning rolls 5 and 6. As will be further understood, the webs3 are provided at at least one edge with suitable perforations, spacedto correspond with the spacing of the pins 2 on the drum 1 so thatregister of the printed matter which may appear on the face of the websmay be maintained, and alignment of the webs one with the other maylikewise be maintained. It should also be pointed out that under certainconditions one of the webs 3 may be slightly longer or shorter than theother web and thus the portion 7 of the web 3 may either buckle or beoverly tensioned as is well known. It is thus desirable to efiectadjustment of the feed roll 1 at the right hand side of Figure 1, toprevent misregister or misalignment of the web. This adjustment may beaffected by the mechanism to be more particularly described in referenceto the other figures in the drawings.

Turning therefore to a consideration of the Figures 2, 3, and 4, thefeed drum 1 is shown as being comprised of a cylindrical or tubularmember 8, of substantial length susceptible of supporting thereon a webof any suitable width, and as shown in Figure 5 is equipped at or nearone end with a spacer 9 of disc-like configuration, closely fitting theinterior of the tubular drum 8 and fastened theretoas by means of thescrews 10.

A similar disc-like member 11 is provided at or near the other end ofthe drum 8, and likewise fastened as by means of the screws 12. Thewhole drum is supported on the shaft 13, which is intended to be drivenin any suitable manner, the support being in the form of a frame 14, andthe shaft being carried in the frame as by meansv of the bearing 15, itbeing apparent that other bearings may be provided on the shaft so as tomaintain the same in alignment for rotation and drive in any suitablemanner.

Reference will now be had particularly to Figures 3 and 4, the sameshowing the shaft 13 as being equipped with a suitable keyway 16, thekeyway 1a in turn being adapted to receive a key 17 therein, which keyis likewise engaged with a bronze bushing member 18. The bronze bushingmember 18 provides for relative rotation of the disc-like member 11 withrespect to the shaft, the disc 9 being mounted loosely on the shaftlikewise so as to permit relative rotation of the shaft and the drumsupported by the discs 9 and 11.

In order to effect a driving of the drum in a rotative manner by meansof the shaft 13, the mechanism now to be described is resorted to. Thismechanism includes a generally rectangular drive plate 19, as shown inboth dotted and full lines in Figure 3, which drive plate 19 is pressedor otherwise suitably non-rotatively fitted on the bronze bushing 18close to the face of the disc-like member 11.

Fastened at a suitable pivot point 20, to the drive plate 19, is thedrive arm 21, the same being equipped at its lower end as viewed inFigure 3 and shown particularly in Figure 4 with a cam member 22,suitably fastened to the 'arm 21 by means of the bolts 23. The other endof the drive arm 21 is provided with a roller 24, pivotally supported at25 on the said end of the arm, and adapted to engage a drive member 26fastened to the disc-like member 11 as by means of a bolt 27, the saiddrive member in this instance constituting a roller.

Fastened to the other face of the drive plate 19 is a threaded sleeve28, the same being equipped with flange 29, whereby the sleeve 28 may befastened as by means of the machine screws 30 to the drive plate 19.Mounted so as to engage the threads of the sleeve 28 is a cam member 31,cam member 31 being tapered as at 32, so as to engage the cam member 22on the lower end of the drive arm 21 as seen in Figure 4. The cam member31 is thus a conical member in essence, and in turn is suitably equippedwith a hand wheel 33, fastened by means of the machine screws 34 to thesaid cam member 31.

It will thus be understood that when the cam member 31 under the controlof the hand wheel 33 is moved on the threads of the sleeve 28, it willengage the cam member 22., and change the angular relation between thedrive arm 21 and the drive plate 19. In order to maintain the roller 24of the drive arm 21 in contact with the drive member 25, suitablesprings 35 are provided for connecting the member 11 and plate 19 onwhich arm 21 is carried, the same being fixed by means of the studs 37to the drive plate 1% as seen in Figure 3, and at their opposite ends tothe disc-like member 11 on the studs 38.

As seen in Figure 3, in full lines the angular relationship between thedrive plates 19 and 21 has been altered so that the relative rotativerelation of the shaft 13 and the pins 2 of the drum 1, has thus beenchanged also. It will be apparent that by moving the hand wheel 33inwardly or outwardly such adjustment of the relative rotative relationof the shaft 13 and pins 2 may be changed at will and this may beaccomplished while the drum is rotatlng by grasping and holding the handwheel, permitting the shaft to turn with respect thereto and causing thecam 32 to ride against the cam section 22 of the arm 21 and cause thesaid arm and plate to change their relationship. This will of coursecause an abutment of the roller 24 with the drive member 26 fixed on themember 11 and thereby to the drum, whereby the adjustment is effected.

In Figure 3, the parts 19 and 21 are shown in full lines in oneposition, the dotted lines another position to which the same may bemoved and thus change the rotative relation of the shaft 13 and drum 8.The pins 2 are shown in corresponding full and dotted lines. Theposition of the parts 21 and 22 in Figure 4 correspond to the dottedline locations thereof in Figure 3, the cam 31 being likewise in thecorresponding position.

The foregoing compensates for buckling of the web by reason of the lackof tension therein, and also can compensate for an overtensioning of theweb which might tend to tear the same and particularly the feed holesection therein.

In order to accomplish changes in the longitudinal alignment of the pins2 of each of the respective drums 1 as shown in Figure 1, furtheradjusting parts are provided, and shown more particularly in Figures 4and 5. These parts comprise a stud 4t), suitably threadedly engaged at41 with the end of the shaft 13, and maintained in that; position by alock nut 42. A suitable cap 43 is provided through which the stud 4-0extends, the outer end of the stud being threaded at 45, and equippedwith a hand wheel-such as 4-6. The foregoing taken in conjunction withthe disclosure in Figure 5 illustrates the manner of effecting theadjustment wherein a spring unit 47 is provided, bearing at one end in asuitable member 48,, the member 48 being in turn carried on the bearing15. At the other end the spring 47 engages a suitable cup-like member.49, which in turn bears against the face of .the discdike member 9 aswill be understood. In manipuiatingthe hand wheel 46, by rotating thesame in one direction, it will be apparent that the entire cylinder 1may be moved for example toward the right, by causing the hand wheel tomove on the stud 49 toward the right on thethreads provided, thustensioning the spring 47 still further. Conversely, when the hand wheel46 is rotated in the opposite direction, the spring 47 may expand andmove the drum back to the position as for example that shown in Figure5.

There is thus provided a simple adjusting means for the feed drum of acollating machine or the like, whereby during actual rotation of thedrum or drums as the case may be the respective hand wheels 33 and 46may be manipulated so as to accomplish both rotative changes of the feedpins carried by the drums with respect to the shaft, and also to movethe drum inwardly and outwardly on the shaft toward the frame forexample to carry out necessary aligning of the respective webs of paperbeing manipulated or driven thereby.

I claim:

1.- In drum adjusting mechanism of the class described in combination, aframe, a drive shaft carried thereby, a drum mounted thereon and meansfor driving said drum comprising, a drive plate fixed to the shaft, adrive arm pivotally mounted on said plate, a drive member connected tothe drum engaged by the drive arm, and cam means shiftable relatively tothe drum likewise engaging the drive arm aforesaid to pivot the same onthe plate whilst in engagement with the drive member men tioned androtate the drum relatively to the shaft.

2. The combination as claimed in claim 1, wherein a cam element isprovided on the drive arm for co-operation with the cam means, andresilient means are provided for maintaining the arm in engagement withthe drive member mentioned.

3. In drum adjusting mechanism of the class described, in combination, aframe, a drive shaft carried thereby, a drum mounted thereon, and meansfor driving said drum by said shaft comprising a drive plate connectedto the shaft, a drive arm pivoted intermediate its ends on said plate, acam member shiftable on the shaft and engaging the arm aforesaid to varythe rotative relationrelationship of the arm and plate willcorrespondingly vary the rotative relationship of the drum and shaft.

4. The combination as claimed in claim 3, wherein resilient connectionsbetween the drive plate and drum are arranged to maintain the drive armin engagement with the cam member and the drive member.

5. The combination as claimed in claim 3, wherein the means for drivingthe drum include a bushing mounted on the shaft for rotation therewithand movement therealong, said bushing is fixed to the drive plate, andmeans are provided at one end of the shaft to effect relative movementof the shaft and bushing as stated, and thereby the drum mounted on theshaft.

6. In drum adjusting mechanism of the class described, in combination, aframe, a drive shaft carried thereby, a drum carried on the shaft andhaving a series of pin members on its periphery, and means accessible atone end of the drum for shifting the same along the shaft and rotativelywith respect thereto, during rotation on the said shaft, to change thepositionof the pin members with respect to the shaft, said shiftingmeans including a drive plate connected to the shaft, a drive armmounted on said plate engaging a drive member connected to the drum, ahand wheel supported on the shaft, and cam elements operable by saidwheel for moving the drive plate with respect to the drive arm, wherebythe drive member is rotated with respect to the shaft.

7. The combination as claimed in claim 6, wherein said shifting meansfurther include a second hand wheel carried by the shaft, a screw membercarried by the shaft engaged by said wheel for moving the drum along theshaft, and resilient means carried on the shaft opposing said movement.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,118,016 Ross May 17, 1938 2,260,402 Potdevin Oct. 28, 1941 2,425,914Blackley et a1. Aug. 19, 1947

